Line 29. Melisma

The same syllable of text sung to two or more notes of melody – conversely, the passage of several notes over one syllable.

Read the Coding Guide for this Line. Listen to each example at least twice. Once you have listened to all the examples, take the Test which follows.

  1. Introduction. C. Europe. Western Classical tradition. A brief passage from Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Female solo. (Bach #1)
  2. Much. C. Europe. A snatch of Gregorian chant. Male solo. (Sachs)
  3. Much. N. Africa, Morocco. A snatch of a Moroccan Sephardic (Moroccan Jewish) song. (Bowles, D1)
  4. Much. Middle East, Israel. Hebrew. A cantor performing a prayer for Yom Kippur in He. Note the stylistic continuity with the previous examples. Male solo. (Cowell #1, B3)
  5. Little or no. N.W. Europe, Scotland, Hebrides. Gaelic mouth music about drinking and courting, from a society in which women had independent status and felt free to sing about female sexuality. (Lomax #33, B34)
  6. Some. S. Europe, Portugal. A Christmas carol performed by a mixed group. (See Line 6, #10.) (Boulton #2, B3)
  7. Much. N. Europe, Norway. Cattle herding preceded plow agriculture in much of N. Europe. Norse dairymaids used such calls as this in managing the cattle. Female solo. (Norway #1, B6a)
  8. Some. Oceania, Melanesia, New Guinea, Butala Region. Male solo with hourglass drum. (Sheridan, A5b)
  9. Little or no. Caribbean, N. Caribbean, Bahamas. Three men from a fishing village on Andros (Andros Island), an internally egalitarian and gender-balanced community, perform a standard hymn tune in the swinging anthem style of the sponge fishermen. (Charters, A6)

Test

Which form of Melisma is recorded here?
For each example below, choose the feature that best fits from the following scale.

Much melisma
Some melisma
Little or no melisma

Consult the Coding Guide as needed. Note your answers in order to check them against the answer key.

  1. E. Africa, Madagascar. A healing song with gunshots sung by a female soloist with two overlapping choirs, men yodeling, hand clapping, and much ornamentation. (Schaeffner & Rouget, B1) Reveal Answer
  2. W. Africa. The Malinke are descendants of the Empire of Mali and millet farmers whose praise songs may be one point of origin for the blues. Praise song, male solo with harp. (Schaeffner & Rouget, A14) Reveal Answer
  3. W. Europe, N. Spain, Santander. In a pastoral village high in the Cantabrian Mountains shepherd girls sing traditional love songs on the local saint’s day. Female group. (Lomax #24, B8) Reveal Answer
  4. E. Asia, Japan. Hokkaido. A fisherman’s song accompanied by shakuhachi (bamboo flute) in free rhythm with rather long phrases and much ornamentation. (Masu, A2) Reveal Answer
  5. S.E. Asia, Malaysia, C. Borneo, Dusun. A young woman of these rainforest rice agriculturalists addresses the recordist: “If you get our music back to your country, you will never forget us.” (Polunin #2, B6) Reveal Answer
  6. E. Europe, S.E. Poland. A typical village orchestra of fiddles, bass, and clarinet plays a figure dance as the singer calls out, “Play faster, I’m not crippled.” (Poland, B6) Reveal Answer

Line 29 Test Answers: 1) Much. 2) Little or no. 3) Some. 4) Much. 5) Some. 6) Little or no.

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